Monday, April 16, 2018

Independent Bookshop Alliance - PLEASE READ THIS!

Last week I went to the London Book Fair (LBF). As well as being the official bookshop (oh yeah), I was there to help co-ordinate the next stage of the Independent Bookshop Alliance plan.

At the fair, the Bookseller's Association had organised a day where publishers presented their Autumn highlight. These are the big books that will be published later in the year.

I was asked to say a few words about the Alliance to the gathered crowds, which hopefully went OK

Anyway, after the presentation, the BA kindly agreed to put all the titles mentioned onto a Surveymonkey and send it to me. Once I get it, I will then be able to email all the shops in the Alliance with this survey. The idea is that they will then be able to (anonymously) highlight the titles on the list that they think would make a great Indie Exclusive Edition.

Once i've got the survey's back I can see if there are any particular titles that are favoured by a lot of shops. This will give us the opportunity to then go to the publishers and say (for example), "Hello publishers, there are 90 bookshops who have expressed an interest in have book x as an Indie Exclusive Edition. Sort it please".

This is the exciting bit. SOMETHING IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING.

If you are already signed up, please look out for this survey coming through on your email in the next day or two.

If you are not yet signed up, but want to get this survey, please email indiebookshops@gmail.com, and I will send it to you.

I would love as many bookshops as possible to get involved in this. The more shops that fill in the survey, the more negotiation power we'll have.

The publishers really want to make this happen, but obviously, they need some kind of assurance that the indies want to get behind the books that they'll be doing for us.